Alternatives to 330i?

utajoker

utajoker

utajoker

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Joined
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Wigan
Some may remember the thread i made about buying an approved used BMW on finance a few weeks ago.

I went looking and saw nothing in my price range for what i wanted (but i saw a ridiculous amount of 320D's)

So i thought i will try for a loan thought i was not sure if i would get one. today i got an approval letter for the loan. woo.

ive been looking for a 330i for about a month and saw one that was perfect, trouble is, the car i spotted has now been sold while i've been waiting for the loan to go through.

I have been keeping tabs on autotrader and bmws used site to see if more come up in the mean time that i like but alas, none have.

my original criteria for the BMW was 330/335, auto, petrol, sat nav, non cream leather, not white <50K miles, around 07/08 plate.


Im now thinking of alternatives.

So im wanting something quick, auto, petrol and and good build quality. the 330i is £240 tax i think so i don't really want to go into the next bracket(i know i mention 335 above but it was only if a really nice one came along) It also comes in at under £500 insurance for me, ive checked an M3 and that is coming between £600 and £2000!

ive got 10K cash plus my 07 focus titanium with a few chips on the bumper, i reckon maybe £3k max for trade in of it. I would like to keep £1k of the cash to one side for maintenance but it depends what comes up. I do need to trade in my focus so trade only.

I also live in the north west so dont want to go too far.
 
The more searching i do the more i look at 335's :/

opinions on any of these?

335 1

335 2

335 3

335 4


i much prefer cars 1 and 4, prefer the coulor and wheels.

the convertable wasnt something i was looking at but im not fussed if it is or isnt tbh.

Fox i need your help please :)
 
Why do you want to pay £12,000 for an 8 year old 3 Series Saloon? The engine is epic but still, £12k is a lot of money for a car that old.
 
From scouring autotrader every day for the last month it seems to be the going price for them and trying to find one for cheaper with sat nav is difficult.
 
Personally I just wouldn't want one if they are that old for that much money.

Somebody on another thread is haggling on one half the age for just 4k more.
 
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I cant stretch my budget that far but long for this car!

i can do £13k max but after constant thinking about it, i am now set on a 335i.

Is the idrive that important? on the 06/07 models im looking at ive read its not that great to use.

cars without it are £1k cheaper maybe 2k and with much lower mileage.

Im searching autotrader and pistonheads, anywhere else i can be looking?

Ive had 1 dealer call me back with a value for my 07 focus titanium, £2k. From research think its worth £3k part ex.

I also really want 225m wheels on it so if it doesnt come with them i shall have to put them on the shopping list, £600-£1000 seems to be the rate for 4.
 
My point wasnt that you should spend more, but to highlight how expensive they are for what you get. Yes, its an amazing engine, IMHO my favourite, but the rest of the car is an 8 year old 3 Series. £13,000 on an 8 year old 3 Series? Really?

The pre 2009 model year iDrive is fairly pants but getting one without idrive gets you a rubbishy 2 line monochrome radio display to remind you how old the car is :p

None of the Saloons ever had 225M's, btw.
 
Yes imo the iDrive is important, pre LCI versions are not bad but not great, having used both the post LCI (CIC version) is much less frustrating, quicker and obviously less dated. When I was looking for my 335i if it didn't have iDrive I wasn't interested. Would you really want to spend £10-15k on a car that doesn't have a built in sat nav/media system?

I'm sure you could stick a different set of wheels on if you wished, there is a good forum sponsor that sells replica's on M3Cutters forum at very reasonable prices.

I would personally avoid an M3 (you mentioned in the OP) as it comes across that you don't have the surplus cash to be able to afford to maintain one, an M3 will swallow a £1k slush fund pretty quickly.

Initially neglecting a 335i over a 330i because of a £20 VED difference is baffling :confused:

Sell your car privately if you are unhappy with the PX values offered.

If you can find an example on less than 60k and take out the BMW fully comprehensive warranty at £50-60pm this would be very wise.

Out of interest what's your annual mileage?
 
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BennyC said:
Yes imo the iDrive is important, pre LCI versions are not bad but not great, having used both the post LCI (CIC version) is much less frustrating, quicker and obviously less dated.
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CIC was introduced from September 2008 build, therefore is present on pre LCI Coupe and Convertible as well.

It's only an LCI/Pre LCI thing on the Saloon and Touring.

These cars have to be some of the most overpriced cars on the market now - I appreciate its what they are worth but there seems to be almost no pricepoint where they are actually worth the money. The cheap ones are ancient, the non-ancient ones are often comedy expensive for a car that is basically a decade old in design terms next year.
 
[TW]Fox;25997771 said:
CIC was introduced from September 2008 build, therefore is present on pre LCI Coupe and Convertible as well.

It's only an LCI/Pre LCI thing on the Saloon and Touring.
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Thank explains why I'd seen a few pre LCI style with CIC controllers & displays.

These cars have to be some of the most overpriced cars on the market now - I appreciate its what they are worth but there seems to be almost no pricepoint where they are actually worth the money. The cheap ones are ancient, the non-ancient ones are often comedy expensive for a car that is basically a decade old in design terms next year.
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I expect there will be an influx of them shortly now the 4 series is available, perhaps their prices will begin to reflect this?
 
You can also retrofit the CIC satnav to older cars, even if they didn't originally come with satnav.

It might be worth looking into it, as if you are looking a a couple K difference, and you get lower miles, then you can get the lower miles, retrofit the nav, and your car will be worth more, because it then has the nav + the lower miles.
 
I thought 335i tax was £450 from the ads on autotrader and the 330i was £240. I have now decided to get a 335 instead as i would only hate not doing it if i got a 330.

As for mileage, i do about 6k per year but my wife will start using it to do site visits all over the country so it will bump it up to around 9k.

M3 is def out of the question, insurance gets trippled and will prob be just too much to maintain.

Im doing my best to try to find one under 50k to get 2 years of cheaper BMW warrenty with my mileage.


I have the money ready to buy its hard holding off hoping for better to come on the market :p

Also i don't want to sell my car private as i cant be without a car and we only have 1 in the household. ive only had a price of one dealer so will see what others offer before i consider it. I think he just didnt want the hassle of trying to sell the car so gave a low price.
 
If you take out the warranty on a monthly DD, as it stands, it will remain at that price irrespective of when the cars mileage exceeds 60K, it is never (currently) reviewed.

6-9K pa isn't too bad, depending on what sort of driving that mostly is you can expect mid to low 20's around town and mid 20's to low 30's on A/B roads and mid 30's on a long motorway run. That's a mix of driving sensibly and occasionally planting it. (N55 engine) - my experience over 4/5 tanks so far.

Trip is reading about 27.7MPG over 1200 miles. Fuelly is pretty similar.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/bennyceesaw/335i
 
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Those figures sound decent to me, im getting 31 tops out of my 1.6 focus!

i get 40mpg at 70 on the motorway.

So my fuel spend wont go up that much :p

atleast i will be driving something that deserves that mpg figure :)
 
If your looking for alternatives, you could try a Alfa 159

I was set on getting a ST220, but was thinking about the 159 as well as there sooo pretty, i found what looked to be a really clean nice ST220 for sale privately but it sold, so i went to have a look at a 159 and was pretty impressed, the interior is a really nice place to be and the 1.75 turbo i tried was a lot quicker than i was expecting

I've settled that i'll buy either a 159 V6 or ST220 now and will simply get the first nice right for me example i find be it the Alfa or Ford, i really dont mind as long as it's in good condition.

So check out the 159, you might be surprised i was, it was a lot more solid and quality in feel than i was expecting from an Alfa
 
I went and had a test drive in a 335i coupe today.

The acceleration was crazy (coming from a 1.6 focus), was more comfortable than my focus and had less road noise but the steering was surprisingly heavy.

The car was a 07 coupe with 60800 miles and up for £12500. I had no intention of buying it but did tried some haggling.

He at first offered £2500 for mine, i got that up to £2900 but he wouldn't budge on the cars price and wanted £9600 to buy it. He did offer a free warranty valued at £350 by 'driver care' who ive never heard of, he told me they where great and covered everything on the car.

The car seemed mechanically sound but i thought the interior condition was a bit poor.

I dont think the car was worth £12500 from what ive seen over the last few weeks of internet searching.

I know i definitely want one now though :)


forgot to add, me and my wife both laughed at each other when we where sat in the office alone for a minute and the phone rang, we 'accidentally' overheard them "oh well its just come back off a test drive now, let me give our address", didn't think people actually tried that stuff.
 
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utajoker said:
forgot to add, me and my wife both laughed at each other when we where sat in the office alone for a minute and the phone rang, we 'accidentally' overheard them "oh well its just come back off a test drive now, let me give our address", didn't think people actually tried that stuff.
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Oh yes, and more than you would imagine :D
 
This may not be something for you, but you can get a new Golf 2.0 TSI R for £250pm now fully maintained over 24 months..
 
zegna said:
This may not be something for you, but you can get a new Golf 2.0 TSI R for £250pm now fully maintained over 24 months..
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Quoting a monthly lease cost is pointless without mentioning how much the initial deposit is and the mileage limit.
Extreme example : lease a Ferrari 458, fully maintained for £50 per month......with a £200k deposit and 5k pa mileage .
 
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